Neural mechanisms linking memory and interoception

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MOTIVATION AND BACKGROUND. There is an emerging consensus in psychology and neuroscience that afferent visceral signals form a core element of subjective feeling states. Significant progress has been in made in revealing the brain mechanisms that underlie the perception of visceral feedback, a process known as interoception. Evidence from multiple neuroimaging modalities points to a central role of the insular cortex in interoception, and it also links it to interactions in large-scale networks in which the insula is embedded. Almost all research on the role of interoception in behavior has focused on emotion. There are suggestions, however, that it could play a much broader functional role, extending into the domains of cognition and consciousness even for stimuli without any affectively-laden content. Given the rich documentation of feeling states that can arise during memory judgements (e.g., familiarity, déjà vu, feelings-of-knowing), we have recently started to examine a potential role for visceral feedback and interoception in memory judgements, with very promising first psychophysiological findings.***OBJECTIVES AND GENERAL APPROACH. The overarching goal of my research program is to increase understanding of the full range of mechanisms involved in making memory judgments, with a special focus on the influence of visceral feedback in the next step. In the proposed research program, we plan to pursue this goal with a multi-modal cognitive neuroscience approach. It centers on the role of cardiac feedback in recognition-memory decisions and meta-memory judgements that are tied to specific feeling states. A central idea that will guide our research is that visceral feedback shapes these memory decisions and experiences through brain mechanisms of interoception. To test this idea, we will employ EEG recordings for examination of the role of the cortical heartbeat evoked potential, and use MRI to elucidate the functional role of the anterior insula, and its functional interactions with other cortical structures, in such memory judgements.***IMPACT. The findings from this research program are expected to set the stage for a mechanistic account of memory judgments and associated feelings that considers the cortical representations of bodily states in relation to other neural representations that are known to shape memory. From a neuroanatomical perspective, this work will shed light on functional contributions and interactions of a brain structure that is frequently activated in fMRI studies on memory but rarely discussed. By emphasizing the role of the body and of subjective experience, our findings will also speak to what may ultimately distinguish memory decisions made by human agents from those that can be offered by virtual knowledge tools in today's digital society.**